Background Art.
The use of cleaning, compaction and baling equipment is well known in the raw cotton processing industries. Typically, the cotton comes in a xe2x80x9crawxe2x80x9d condition to a processing plant commonly referred to as a gin where the stalk and other parts of the plant extraneous to the actual cotton fibers is removed as thoroughly as possible. The cleaned cotton bolls are then formed into a batt which is essentially a sheet formed of cotton fibers. This cotton batt is typically conditioned by adding moisture thereto. The addition of moisture to the batt imparts advantageous effects because it facilitates compaction by making the cotton fibers more amenable to being bent, crushed and flattened into a more compact batt.
One drawback of currently available equipment for adding moisture to such a cotton batt is that the degree of moisturization is difficult to control. Secondly, the configurations used for compacting the batt do not readily facilitate anomalies in the batt, especially with respect to thickness. That is to say, if a significant enlargement or lump is encountered in a batt being processed therethrough, presently available compaction equipment does not make suitable accommodations for the deviation. Still further, conventionally designed arrangements tend to accomplish the moisturizing step over a significant distance which is not easily controlled and the moisturized air is not easily contained about the batt for a more thorough infusion and emplacement of the moisture into the cotton fibers. An example of such a known arrangement is provided in FIG. 4 in which louvers are arranged to distribute moisturized air underneath the batt with very little control exercised thereover.
In view of the above described deficiencies associated with the use of known designs for moisturizing equipment for fibrous material, and particularly cotton batts, the present invention has been developed to alleviate these drawbacks and provide further benefits to the user. These enhancements and benefits are described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to several alternative embodiments of the present invention.